Russian scientists: Earth can expect a new ice age

There is no escaping another ice age on Earth; this is the conclusion that has been reached by researchers at the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, institute director told

There is no escaping another ice age on Earth; this is the conclusion that has been reached by researchers
at the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology of the Ural Branch of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, institute director Vladimir Bogdanov told ITAR-TASS.
However, the “global cooling” will not occur for another few thousand years.

“To predict the distant future, we are researching
ecological issues and trying to understand what life was like hundreds of
thousands of years ago,” said Bogdanov.

“Everything on Earth is cyclical — a warm
period is followed by a cold one, and vice versa. We are currently in a warm
period. However, unlike past periods, it is advancing too quickly. Over the
last 100 years, we have seen a drastic migration of animals and plants to the
North.” Thus every year, trees are rising by about 1.5 feet toward the peaks of
the northern mountains, and they are encroaching on the tundra.

“Our observations suggest that Earth’s climate warming will
occur for at least another 50 years. This is most noticeable in high
latitudes — in the Artic and the mountains,” said Valery Mazepa, a biologist and
head of the institute’s dendrochronology laboratory.

According to scientists, a global cooling on the planet is
inevitable, and humans will not be able to affect this cycle. “People’s actions
may only influence how cool it will be during the next ice age on Earth. It
will depend on how much greenhouse gases threaten the atmosphere,” said Pavel
Kosnitsev, head of the institute’s paleoecology laboratory.